I really thought Nintendo's Metroid Prime would rule supreme as king on the GameCube for a long time. But a mere four months after Prime ensnared gamers with its fabulous experience, the next game in Nintendo's triple-A series -- The Legend of Zelda -- has arrived, and it's as close to perfection as I could have possibly hoped for. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a work of gaming genius. I've seen the good and the bad come and go over the past five years as a gaming journalist, but very few come close to topping Link's latest adventure.

Remember when you first saw the new screenshots, or heard the rumors that the next Zelda game for GameCube looked all "cartoony" and weird? Remember all those message board threads debating and bashing Nintendo's decision to alter gamers' perceptions of the Zelda franchise? Well, no matter what your previous opinions might have been, The Wind Waker excels on pretty much every single level possible. I'm not too sure every gamer will like the way it looks, or will play the game from start to finish, but those people are going to miss out on a game that rivals -- and dare I say is better than -- the legendary N64 title, Ocarina of Time.

The Hero of Time is Reborn

It all begins one hundred years after the events of Ocarina of Time took place. A young lad by the name of Link is celebrating his birthday on his home of Outset Island, located in the middle of a vast ocean world known as the Great Sea. As the day wears on, Link's grandmother tells a story of a legendary hero dressed in green who saved the land from an evil force. At this point, a chain of events begin that will ultimately lead Link to discover that his destiny involves the rebirth of an ancient evil power -- something that only he can stop from destroying the world.

Link's kid sister, Aryll, is callously kidnapped by a monstrous bird-creature and bore away to a fortress prison. Together with a jovial band of pirates -- lead by the wickedly cute Miss Tetra -- Link leaves behind his simple life and sets sail for the fortress island to rescue her. Before long, Link is separated from his new friends and is forced to adventure alone over the high seas of the Great Sea in a living, talking sailboat called "King of Red Lions." After getting a gift in the form of the fabled Wind Waker -- a magical baton that grants the user the power to control the wind -- Link soon enough finds himself on an adventure involving many different islands, dungeons, towns, and locations. Without giving up any spoilers, the story pegs Link as the Hero of Time, climaxing with more than a few epic boss encounters, and reintroducing plenty of the Zelda legacy.

Gameplay at its Finest

The Wind Waker plays more like a Hayao Miyazaki -- the father of Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro -- animated feature film than a game. It's a living, breathing experience more than a digital piece of entertainment. With production values of the highest standard, The Wind Waker entertained me like no other. Everything about it is excellent. The controls are simple, intuitive, and sharp. Combat is smooth and easily mastered; puzzles and dungeons are perfectly balanced to suit the non-liner progression and the side-quests and rich worldly characters are amazing.

There's literally so much to see and do that even though you might think the world map is reasonably small, you'll be constantly amazed at the sheer magnitude of gameplay depth. The map contains a seven-by-seven grid. Each square contains at least one island or point of interest, and in most cases, more. Whether it's an entire brain-twisting, gut-slashing dungeon resplendent with critters, mini-boss and big-boss, or a simple side-quest that you've been working on for a few days, there's never a shortage of things to accomplish.

King of the Wind.

The game will constantly nudge you gently in the right direction in order to progress, and as a result, you'll rarely find yourself repeating large chunks of gameplay or in a state of confusion. You have pretty much total freedom to do what you want, when you want. The ongoing theme of controlling the wind is carried out to perfection -- much the same way as time travel was tackled in Ocarina of Time. There were a few times when I felt as though I was having to change the direction of the wind a little too often, but that really boiled down to my own obsessive exploration.